Amnesia. What is it? For some, it is simply the partial or total loss of memory. Something that one wouldn’t think too much about. However, it is a very real and present problem. Unlike other mental disorders, amnesia can be experienced at any age.(S. Wood, E. Wood, and D. Boyd 200) Amnesia isn’t as severe as it is commonly shown in the media, but can still have major emotional impact on the people around an amnesia patient. Thankfully, there is plenty of research that better helps us understand what amnesia is and what causes it. From that research, we know that there are several forms of amnesia; anterograde, retrograde, and transient global amnesia. Anterograde amnesia is the inability to store new memories. Retrograde amnesia is the inability …show more content…
Humans’ memory involves three steps; encoding, storage, and retrieval. Different types of amnesia affect different parts of our memory. Anterograde amnesia (AA) is a type of memory loss that causes an individual’s storing ability to fail. A patient with anterograde amnesia is the one who is grossly deficient in the formation of new memories. (H. Markowitsch 155-183) This is an interesting effect, since it is very different from the common idea of memory loss. The individual will still be able to recall memories from before the amnesia, however. While the exact cause of AA is still unknown, there are many possible causes. It is most commonly acquired one of three ways. One cause is benzodiazepine drugs. These are psychoactive drugs that alter brain function, resulting in temporary changes to perception, mood, consciousness, and behavior. These drugs, if abused, can cause anterograde. The second cause is a brain injury, but only if the damage is done to the hippocampus or the surrounding area. Should the injury not cause death, it can cause amnesia. The third cause is illness. This cause is much rarer than the previous two, however. Amnesia will only occur if the illness causes inflammation of brain tissue. However, there is also a form of temporary AA called blackout. This most commonly happens when one gets drunk. The rise in blood alcohol concentration causes short term memories created during intoxication to be blocked from storage and later retrieval. This is only temporary, since long term memory creation is restored once the individual is sober. An example of AA in media would be the movie Memento, in which the main character retains his personality and old memories, but cannot form any new
Hippocampus is a small, curved region, which exists in both hemispheres of the brain and plays a vital role in emotions, learning and acquisition of new information. It also contributes majorly to long term memory, which is permanent information stored in the brain. Although long term memory is the last information that can be forgotten, its impairment has become very common nowadays. The dysfunction is exemplified by many neurological disorders such as amnesia. There are two types of amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde amnesia is inability in forming new information, while retrograde refers to the loss of the past memory. As suggested by Cipolotti and Bird (2006), hippocampus’s lesions are responsible for both types of amnesia. According to multiple trace theory, the author suggests that hippocampal region plays a major role in effective retrieving of episodic memory (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For example, patients with hippocampal damage show extensively ungraded retrograde amnesia (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). They have a difficult time in retrieving information from their non-personal episodic events and autobiographical memory. However, this theory conflicts with standard model of consolidation. The difference between these theories suggests that researchers need to do more work to solve this controversy. Besides retrieving information, hippocampus is also important in obtaining new semantic information, as well as familiarity and recollection (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). For instance, hippocampal amnesic patient V.C shows in ability to acquire new semantic knowledge such as vocabularies and factual concepts (Cipolotti and Bird, 2006). He is also unable to recognize and recall even...
Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) account to a third (30.5%) of all injury-related deaths in the U.S. with an estimated 1.7 million individuals sustaining TBI each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). Classifications of brain injury (e.g., mild, moderate and severe) is mostly done using the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) which has gained broad acceptance for the assessment of the severity of brain damage (Bauer & Fritz, 2004). Recent studies suggest that almost all patients with moderate or severe TBI have a period of recovery during which they are responsive but confused. This state is commonly referred to as the post-traumatic amnesia. Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is defined as “a failure of continuous memory” (Artiola et al., 1980; p.377). PTA is often cited as the best method for codifying the degree, level of recovery and outcome after a closed head injury (e.g., Artieola et al., 1980; Tate, Pfaff, & Jurjevic, 2000). PTA duration is a better indicator of outcome than early injury scales such as the GCS score (Richardson et al., 2009).This analysis will examine the limitations of the general PTA assessment scale, and investigate the benefits and limitations of both retrospective and prospective methods used to measure the duration of PTA.
On a scale from one to ten, I give this movie a seven. This film was well written and directed; the he plot was confusing at first, once I figured out that Christopher Nolan was trying to do, the rest of the story line was fairly easy to follow.
One cause is benzodiazepine drugs, which are known to have powerful amnesic affects. This has also been recorded in non-benzodiazepine sedatives which act on the same set of receptors. Another cause is a traumatic brain injury in which damage is usually done to the hippocampus or surrounding cortices. It can also be caused by shock from psychological trauma or an emotional disorder. Illness, though much rarer, can also cause anterograde amnesia such as encephalitis, which is the inflammation of brain tissues do to some foreign pathogen. Lucy is diagnosed as having Goldfield’s Syndrome, which is the exact same thing as anterograde amnesia. She shows signs of short-term memory loss, her brain stores the new memories of the day has she lived however, after falling asleep she is unable to access these
While the average life expectancy of the world’s population has increased, the number of detected dementia cases has commensurately risen to astonishing levels. Along with improved discovery of this disorder, new causes and treatments have been found, from which many innovative techniques have been developed towards the prevention of future incidences and reduction of the effects of this condition; however, the quest for these solutions have raised more questions than it has answered. Why do some develop this disorder, while others do not? Can early detection be achieved to reverse the processes or limit its effects? Further specifics on these topics have been categorized into three main sections, which include:
The main Character is Lenard; he is an average looking male in his mid to early thirties. At first look one would never think that there is anything wrong with him, he speaks clearly and intelligently, id s polite individual and well-mannered when interacting with others. Lenard does the typical things and daily activities that a normal person does. On sight one can’t tell that, but Lenard has a condition where he cannot recall anything that happens to him within a matter of minutes, things such as people he meets, the conversations he had and places he’s been become distant after a few minutes. The only thing that Lenard is able to remember is those things that happened before the incident that caused his diagnosis. The things that Lenard is able to recall are those things such as his name, who he is, and the way his life was before the traumatic experience. Lenard is incapable of making new memories as well as short term memories.
Anterograde Amnesia (AA) is commonly known as short term memory loss. It is the inability to form any new memories after a neurological or psychological trauma in the brain. “Current definitions of anterograde amnesia emphasize the presence of severe and permanent deficits for the recall of recent events (typically with poor recognition) that contrast with intact short-term memory, IQ, semantic memory, skill learning, simple classical conditioning, perceptual learning, and priming” (Aggleton, 2008, p. 1442). Also, according to Aggleton, AA causes the inability to recall autobiographical events (episodic memory). Research shows that damage to the diencephalon or frontal lobe can cause AA. Damage to the diencephalon impairs memory performance because it encodes new experiences for future recall and damage to the frontal lobe of the brain weaken memory performance because the it is involved in regulates access explicit memory (Mendev 2007). Duff, Wszalek, Tranel & Cohen (2008) stated...
Amnesia, a severe long-term memory loss disease, is caused by damaged brain tissue. There are two different types of amnesia. Retrograde amnesia is also known as backward moving. This is when you have a hard time remembering the past, especially episodic memories. This occurs because of memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is the process of a new memory setting until it becomes permanently in the brain. If this process is disrupted, the memory may be lost (Hockenberry and Hockenberry page 265). Anterograde amnesia is also known as forward moving. This is when you are unable to form new
I will first be discussing declarative memory, which is characterized by knowledge of facts and events. Much of our current knowledge of the structure and substrates of declarative memory derives from studies of amnesiac patients, from which we can derive two primary findings: declarative memory is separate from other forms of memory such as working and non-declarative memory, and function of declarative memory is dependent on structures
Amnesia is the partial or complete loss of memory, most commonly is temporary and for only a short period of time. (1). There are various degrees of amnesia with the most commonly occurrence being either retrograde or anterograde amnesia. Prior to my research into this subject I did not know much about amnesia besides what is portrayed in the Disney movie Anesthesia in which Anesthesia cannot remember her traumatic childhood. While I recognize that there is a huge difference between forgetting what to pick up at the grocery store and not remembering the past ten years of ones life, what exactly is the difference between the later and the former?
Have you ever been an eyewitness at the scene of a crime? If you were, do you think that you would be able to accurately describe, in precise detail, everything that happened and remember distinct features of the suspect? Many people believe that yes they would be able to remember anything from the events that would happen and the different features of the suspect. Some people, in fact, are so sure of themselves after witnessing an event such as this that they are able to testify that what they think they saw was indeed what they saw. However, using an eyewitness as a source of evidence can be risky and is rarely 100% accurate. This can be proven by the theory of the possibility of false memory formation and the question of whether or not a memory can lie.
The human brain consists of many subsystems within the long-term memory. One of which is episodic memory. Episodic Memory is the remembrance of a phenomenal personal experience in terms of what, when, and where. This memory begins by retrieving information such as, words, objects, or faces; using this knowledge the episodic memory finds links and slowly transitions into recalling the complete memoir.
“The Vow” is a movie that encases the turmoil and hardship associated with retrograde amnesia and the classic symptoms and steps associated with recovering and potentially regaining lost memory. Taking into account the information gained through multiple sources; such as, lecture of Mental Health, medical databases, and the personal experiences of Krickett Carpenter, the Vow provides both an accurate and inaccurate depiction of retrograde amnesia.
It has been stated “that having a traumatic dissociation or childhood sexual amnesia is very common and real. The human mind responds in various ways to trauma. People who have studied trauma and traumatic events have known for a long time that there are several kinds of amnesia that affects us. When something is overwhelming emotionally, some people block it out, separating the event from the rest of their memories”(www.allaboutcounseling.com). For example, people that were in a car accident forget parts of what happened. The psychological conclusion says that the stress of the moment was so traumatic that the person c...
Memory is the tool we use to learn and think. We all use memory in our everyday lives. Memory is the mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experiences. We all reassure ourselves that our memories are accurate and precise. Many people believe that they would be able to remember anything from the event and the different features of the situation. Yet, people don’t realize the fact that the more you think about a situation the more likely the story will change. Our memories are not a camcorder or a camera. Our memory tends to be very selective and reconstructive.